A Tale of Utmost Sacrifice
by igniteXtheXairwaves
Summary: Where months had passed, Kurogane felt years... That final battle and the tragedy it brought, told in Kuro-chan's POV.
1. Prologue

**Settings:** Set in Nihon, about three years after the final battle with Fei Wong. However, some chapters will be flashbacks to the final battle.

**Warnings:** Swearing. And...well...a kind of depressed Kuro-chan, I suppose.

**Disclaimer:** No. I do not own Kurogane or Fai or...anyone else who appears in this story and doesn't belong to me. Yeah...that made sense.

**Author's Note:** Well, this was inspired by a dream. A very odd dream. A very odd, very depressing dream. Not at all how I want Tsubasa to end.

* * *

Where months had passed, Kurogane felt years.

Patrolling the outer wall in the silvery rays the almost-full moon cast down on the world, he sometimes felt ancient. It hadn't been long since that journey --

_since that man_ --

but he somehow felt as if the youth were drained from him.

Sometimes he simply had to pause. Stop where he was, take a deep breath, remember, and try to let go.

But letting go was the hardest part.

During that final battle, when he'd lost Ginryu, he'd been distraught. As if it were a person. As if it were the most important thing in the world, that sword. And maybe it _had_ been, once upon a time, when all he'd had to live for -- all he'd had to _protect_ -- was his honor, his _father's _honor. And that was why he mourned the loss of that sword, the very symbol of that honor.

But it wasn't until Fai fell that he realized that the sword didn't matter. He'd thrown away a lot of swords for good causes. Like, the replica Ginryu to make it back home.

Sohi to save Fai.

And, by Hell and Heaven and everything between, if he'd had Ginryu that time -- the _real _Ginryu -- if he hadn't already lost it by then, he'd have thrown it away, too. He'd have thrown it and his other arm away, maybe a leg. Hell, his life.

If it could save him --

_Fai _--

then Kurogane would've thrown it all away.

But he hadn't had Ginryu. And he himself hadn't been there. Not at the time, not when it mattered.

Not when Fei-Wong made his move.

Not when...

Kurogane halted his patrol, raised his hands to his face. His ring fingers found his temples by memory, and they drove themselves into the soft areas, as if being doing so they could gorge out everything-- the headaches, the memories, the awful feeling that one is aging too fast for the world around them.

But especially the memories.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So, there you have it. A disturbingly-depressed Kuro-wanka.

Reviews make the world go 'round.


	2. Chapter One

**Author's Note:** This is a flashback.

* * *

Fei-Wong's little lackeys were falling fast.

That was the good part about the guys. They came, they fell. There really was no middle ground to it, no lasting spar or duel. They fell quickly by Kurogane's sword and Fai's magic; the two, fighting back-to-back, mowed them down by the dozens.

The bad part about them was less their, ah, _quality_ and more their _quantity_.

Which was a lot. A very-fucking-lot.

Just as his sword slashed the head off of one of the bastards, another appeared right behind him. Just appeared. No flashy entrance, not even any _walking_, for God's sake. They were just suddenly _there._

Kurogane was getting frustrated. Actually, 'wholly-pissed-off' would better phrase it. And it showed.

As he let out another dangerous growl and another enemy fell, he heard Fai laugh a bit behind him, a genuine, exhilarated laugh. The mage asked in a slightly breathless voice, "Are you not enjoying this, Kuro-rin?"

His pissed-off-level rising slightly, Kurogane growled, a bit incredulous, "You _are_?"

"Why, yes." There was a slight arrogant, matter-of-fact tone in Fai's voice. "I actually am."

Kurogane simply rolled his eyes, taking out yet another of the look-alike enemies. Two appeared to his left as he did so.

"These are just the henchmen," he muttered after a moment, turning his death-glare to the two newcomers. "I won't be satisfied with the fight until they break out the big guns."

"Or rather, big _gun_," Fai corrected.

Kurogane nodded minutely. "Fei-wong," he agreed in a very ominous growl. He lost focus for a moment, imagining driving Ginryu right through Fei-Wong's skull, but that little moment was enough.

In that moment, his sword lost direction, striking an enemy's blade at a perfect right angle. With a spark and a deafening clang, the blades deflected off of each other, wrenching away in opposite directions.

The lackey managed to keep a hold of his.

Kurogane did not.

He watched in momentary dismay as Ginryu soared high over the sea of enemies. It disappeared into the crowd, and he knew it was lost, if only for now.

"Shit," he snapped, only just grabbing the enemy's wrist as its blade began to descend towards his face. With a jerk, he had the guy's whole arm forced behind his back, and with a chilling swiftness he turned the enemy, grabbed it just above the ears, and snapped the neck.

"Nice," Fai commented with a coy smile, having stopped momentarily to watch the spectacle with an eyebrow raised. Returning to the fight, he queried only half-jokingly over his shoulder, "Do you need a weapon, or are you perfectly content with snapping men's necks from here in?"

Kurogane only grunted in reply, having already lunged for the next enemy.

* * * * * * * * *

The fight was long.

Kurogane didn't know when it happened, not really, but at one point, Fai was no longer fighting behind him. He found himself having to watch his own back at all times because the mage was no longer there to do it for him.

For a fleeting moment, he worried over what would happen now that _he_ was no longer watching _Fai's_ back.

But then an enemy latched its arms around his throat and he had to focus on himself, on 'here' and 'now' and selfish ideas like that.

If only he'd decided to investigate the mage's disappearance right then and there.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Gasp! But what happened to Fai?

Fei-Wong's _real _wish is for you to review. :)


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

**Author's Note:** Umm, well...rated T for swearing.

_

* * *

__I am drenched in sweat._

That and that alone served as the first thought Kurogane had when the lackeys stopped appearing. The last one fell to his lethal hands and he was immediately aware of how utterly soaked through he was.

It wasn't as if he'd never sweated before. It was just that he'd grown so strong since he was a boy that he hardly ever faced a fight that lasted long enough to even wind him.

It was a new feeling.

Kurogane's second thought was of the mage. He'd disappeared halfway through the fight and the ninja had seen nothing of him since.

Fleetingly, as he surveyed the cavernous room, he was angry.

Then, he saw it.

The blue coat, that God-damned blue coat, strung out on the floor.

Blood-spattered.

_Shit._

His breath catching in his throat, Kurogane examined the room more closely, focusing on the bodies. None even vaguely resembled the mage. In a far-off corner, Syaoran tended to a slightly but apparently not seriously injured Princess Sakura. Mokona looked on solemnly, but, hearing Kurogane move, glanced up. Ecstatic that the enemies had gone, the manjuu-bun began to bounce its way towards the ninja, but halted upon seeing that the man was alone.

"Fai?" Mokona called out to Kurogane, but the ninja had already disappeared into an adjoining hallway in search of the mage.

His breathing slowed, growing quieter, and as it did so he began to hear distant noises, the most distinctive being Fei-Wong's dark laugh, followed by a much quieter but still audible shout of pain.

He began to sprint in the direction of the noises, wrenching a sword from a dead body as he passed it. By the sounds of it, Fai was still alive, as a rather recognizable cry of agony resonated through the halls every minute or so.

Kurogane ran fast so Fai would stay that way. Alive. Well.

Finally, he arrived in a room, one that the hallway fed into directly. A dead end. And far to the left, Fei-Wong had a pale, thin figure pinned up against the wall, his hand grasping his prisoner's neck.

_Fai!_

Kurogane assessed his options. A strong attack would _possibly_ finish Fei-Wong off and _definitely_ shatter the generic sword he held in his hands, leaving Kurogane with nothing to fight with afterwards and possibly even killing Fai. But, on the other hand, with the weak sword, sparring with Fei-Wong would be outright suicide.

Suicide appealed to Kurogane much more.

Swift and silent -- a ninja in its truest form -- Kurogane lunged at Fei-Wong's exposed back, savoring the sound of metal severing skin.

The first hit. And he knew it'd be the only one he got.

Fei-Wong turned on him, allowing the mage to crumple to the floor. Deflecting blow after blow after blow, Kurogane found his glare returning to that defeated form, urging him, _ordering_ him, to get up. It wasn't until one of these orders was abruptly cut off as Fei-Wong's sword made contact with his skin that Kurogane realized he was saying them out loud.

Drawing in a long, shuddering breath, the ninja allowed his gaze to travel downwards to where the hilt of the sword protruded from his chest.

A fleeting memory hit him as he fell-- one of his mother, dying in the same manner.

The memory passed, his mind returning to the present day, and Kurogane found himself suddenly lying on his back, the sword having been wrenched from his body. Said sword and its master were nowhere to be seen.

Through the growing haze, he saw a figure approaching. The man kneeled by Kurogane, his slightly heavy-lidded blue eyes piercingly concerned.

_Fai. _

With trembling fingers Fai grasped Kurogane's sword hand, the feel of those cold hands enough to chill the ninja to the bone.

"I'll make it better, Kuro-tan," he heard the mage say to him with an unearthly determination in his tone. "I will. I'll make it better."

Kurogane's eyes slipped closed. He didn't have the strength to keep them open.

That fact alone was enough to piss him off. It was terribly demeaning.

The mage's cold fingers inspected the wound, but the ninja felt nothing. He saw nothing. The only thing he sensed was Fai's voice, speaking to him in growing hysteria as he attempted to heal him.

"I can't heal. I've never been able to," Fai said with a shaky laugh. "I'm sorry. That's not very reassuring, is it?"

_No. I can assure you it's not. _

He heard the quiet movement of Fai's hands in the air as they wove their magic. There was an odd cooling sensation around his midsection, and then he once more felt nothing.

The mage simply continued to chatter away in a less-than-cheerful manner.

"But I'll heal you. I will. I can. I know it. I have to."

_It's good to know you're so confident in yourself and your already non-existent healing abilities. _

"Do you remember the Hanshin Republic, Kuro-rin? Your Kudan was a dragon."

_Thank you for reminding me but I do wonder how the fuck this is relevant. _

Fai let out a chuckle. As if he knew what Kurogane was thinking.

"Mine was a bird. A phoenix. I don't know why I'm thinking about this. Sometimes my mind just returns to things."

_Good to know. Continue your confident and helpful freaking work._

"You know, I'm sorry, Kuro-tan. For everything. For causing you trouble and annoying you and such."

_Why are you apologizing now when you're so confident you'll save me? If you're so sure of yourself, mage, then save all this crap for later. _

"I think it's working. I think I'm actually healing you."

_That's great and all but why do you sound so damned surprised?_

But Kurogane let out a mental sigh. He wasn't afraid of death. Not by a long shot. But if he had a chance at life…

Well, he didn't take life for granted.

"Ashura used to tell me that I don't need to be able to heal with magic because my smile heals."

_Pfft. _

"I...I keep forgetting that he's dead. It's odd. I miss him."

_He tried to kill you. He tried to kill _me_. Hell, he tried to kill us all. Why the fuck would you miss him?_

"But I suppose I'm optimistic about the future."

_The future? Quick change of subject. _

Quick change of subject, and therefore very much like Fai. So flighty-- so scatterbrained. If he could, Kurogane would have laughed.

"Then again, I must admit, I'm kind of scared..."

Kurogane sighed mentally.

_You're annoying._

"In fact, I'm terrified."

_It really pisses me off that I'm in love with you._

* * *

**Author's Note:** The confession! And it's not even _out loud_! How tragic!

At first I had Kuro-chan thinking 'It really pisses me off that **I love you'**, but it just didn't work.... He seems like the kind of person who wouldn't be able to say 'I love you' because it sounds so voluntary. Therefore, the more_ I-have-no-choice-_esque 'I'm in love with you' seems more fitting. ^^

I felt like this chapter was kind of vague...like, not detailed enough. If you feel that way, too, _please_ tell me so I can flesh it out a bit! ^^

Anyway, reviews are like tea: they keep you alive and healthy (and writing *coughcough*) and you never get tired of them. :D So please review and tell me your opinion!


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing.

**Author's Note:**Firstly, thank you to everyone who favorited, follow, or reviewed for this story! You make me happy. ^^ Sorry for taking so long to update. . I am plagued by writer's block. And sorry this chapter's so short, but I could see no other way to do it without losing the drama. XD Also, in this chappie, Kuro-wan's still in flashback mode.

* * *

When Kurogane woke up, all was quiet and dark.

The first thing he noticed was the smell. The air was saturated with the scent of incense; it was a sleepy, heavy, headache-inducing smell, one that burned Kurogane's eyes.

He grunted and sat up a bit, expecting to see that damned mage sitting there by his bedside, grinning in his stupid way, just _itching _to remind the ninja that he was the only reason he was alive.

But there was no one there. Not even the vague outline of a person, all that would've been visible in that extent of darkness.

In fact, as far as Kurogane could tell, there was no one _anywhere_.

With only a little difficulty, he managed to stand. His other senses told him what his eyes couldn't. Five steps ahead, twelve steps to the left, the air pressure shifted, the air of the room being sucked through a rectangular gap in the wall.

In other words, there was a doorway. An open doorway.

He stretched for a moment, feeling an unpleasant tugging in his abdomen where Fai's hands had healed him, and proceeded silently through that doorway.

It took him down a hall, even darker than the former room had been, but as he traveled down it he noticed that it grew lighter and lighter.

Finally, he emerged into another room, and realized immediately where he was.

That freaking witch's shop.

And she was sitting there, illuminated by candlelight, a solemn look on her face. Also in the room were Syaoran, Sakura, and Mokona. All wearing similar expressions.

Kurogane glanced around suspiciously for a moment, having difficulty understanding the seriousness of their moods, and then spoke directly to the witch in a gruff voice: "Where is he?"

Her eyes grew oddly tight around the corners, the inner barriers of her eyebrows turning up just slightly, her mouth morphing into a subtle little frown. And then, the expression was gone, just as quickly as it had come. And it was only then that Kurogane realized that it had been a face of sorrow.

He felt an awful clenching sensation in his chest, constricting his lungs, blocking air's passage, making breath nearly impossible to capture.

His fists clamped shut, hard enough to drive his dull nails, bitten almost to the quick, into the calloused skin of his palm. He asked again, this time in a growl, "Where is he?"

She lowered her eyes. Kurogane had never once before seen the witch in such a state of distress, and it inspired in him a fear he'd only felt once before in his life.

"He had never properly learned the magic he used on you," she explained in her typical 'let's-not-get-involved' voice, _so_ calm and _so_collected. But she sounded smaller. Less confident. "He was never meant to use that kind of magic. Fei-Wong Reed made sure of that." She looked up at him then, the same expression of sorrow in her eyes, although this time it didn't reach her features. They remained neutral. "I can't even begin to understand how he managed to conjure it up, especially enough to heal a wound such as yours. But, however he managed it, it was too much for him. I'm sorry."

Her voice broke. On that last word, her smooth voice cracked subtly, and that was perhaps the most significant part of what she had just said. Because if she had kept her composure, if she'd just kept her freaking voice still, it could've all been a joke. A stupid little prank, most likely concocted by that mage himself. The witch would finish what she had to say, and while Kurogane stood there, shocked and angry and ready to kill something, Fai would jump out and leap onto the ninja's back and shout something stupid.

'Aww, look at Kuro-pu's face! I _told _you that you loved me!'

But no.

That fucking witch's voice had gone and broke.

And now it was all true.

_Every fucking bit _of it.

Fai was dead.

* * *

**Author's Note:**Did anyone happen to catch my pun? xD It's nothing big, just one word, but if anyone catches it, it'll make me very happy. :3

Anyway, please review! Reviews are like insect repellent, except for writer's block. They inspire me and make me want to write! ^^

* * *


	5. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but the storyline.

**Author's Note:**I want to apologize in advance. . This chapter is exceptionally short and the next few are going to be the same. That's because I'm kind of going to do a stages-of-grief sort of thing. Except, you know, Kurogane-ized. xD The good part about all this is that I know what I'm going to write and I'll therefore update faster! :D

Anyway, I wrote this very quickly on a whim (up until now, I've had absolutely no idea where this story was going D:), so if there are any typos or if anything seems unclear, please tell me so I can fix it. ^^

Also, if you have never seen the movie 'The Prestige' (which you totally need to, freaking amazing movie...), then there's a reference in here you might not get. In a magic trick, there are three parts-- the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. In the pledge you present a normal object, in the turn you do something extraordinary with it (like, make it disappear), and in the prestige you bring it back.

* * *

The moments passing by held the weight of hours.

All eyes were on him. It was in this moment that Kurogane noticed the Princess crying softly, the kid on the verge of doing the same. Mokona's face was buried in Sakura's collarbone.

How had he not noticed? How the hell had he not noticed that something was wrong? God, even the witch's eyes were tearing up.

_But--_

_But it can't--_

_It fucking _can't_ be--_

Chest heaving, Kurogane backed away from them. His eyes darted wildly around the room, searching in vain for those eyes, a gold and a blue. His ears strained to hear that lilting laugh, which had to be ringing somewhere. It all had to be a joke. That fucking magician had to be fooling them all, if not just the ninja.

But he saw no such eyes. And he heard no such laugh.

His upper back made contact with a wall, a support, and at that moment it seemed that all the strength seemed to seep from his legs into the ground. He put all his weight on that wall, as if it were the only thing keeping him grounded, the only object in a _world_ of objects preventing him from simply falling into the sky.

"Kurogane," Yuuko sighed, and there was a definite sniffle to her voice. "I was asked by Princess Tomoyo to send you home the moment you awoke." She raised her slightly-watery gaze to meet his, numb and shocked, and asked almost gently, "Is that all right? Or would you like a moment?"

He stared at her for a bit longer than would normally be necessary to process her words. What had she said? Home?

Home.

This had to be it.

_This_ was the joke, the trick -- _this_ was the twist. They were still in the fucking 'turn', and Nihon -- _Nihon_ was the 'prestige'.

Everyone thinking he was dead, when he was just waiting there, in Nihon country. And Kurogane would arrive and there he would be, standing there in that fucking furisode that Princess Tomoyo had no doubt _insisted _on him wearing. And he would smile and Tomoyo would laugh and _Amaterasu_, even, might get a kick out of it.

Home.

"Yeah," Kurogane replied, his voice gravelly, his mouth dry.

A certain look came across the witch's face, as if through that single word alone she could see every thought forming in the ninja's head.

"All right," she said softly, and then again, louder: "All right."

She stood then, her eloquent movements slightly more deliberate, perhaps weighed down by grief or pity. She crossed the room, taking down from a shelf a certain marking that Kurogane had actually forgotten about. Gathering the object up in her arms, she grabbed a small container, very much like a perfume bottle, that held suspended within it what appeared to be a small blue gem.

The witch approached Kurogane once more, carefully tucking the two objects into his arms. She reached behind him, plucking something from a shelf, and then brought it to where he could see, all the while watching warily for his reaction.

The staff. The_ fucking_ staff.

Yuuko folded it into one of his palms, making sure his fingers grasped it tightly before letting go. For a moment, both of her pale hands rested on his own.

"They're yours," she told him shortly. "Take them."

With that, she gave his hand a small, almost imperceptible squeeze before stepping back.

Kurogane grasped the objects as tightly as he possibly could as the witch sent him home.

* * *

**Author's Note:** It seems our poor ninja is in shock/denial. :(

Please review, whether you liked it or you hated it or you loved it or you think I should give up writing and find a solitary little hole in which I'll live out the rest of my sorry days. :)


	6. Chapter Five

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing.

**Author's Note:** Whew! So, haven't updated this for a very very _very_ long time and I really must apologize for that. This chapter is a bit short because I wanted to update as soon as possible. You can definitely expect the next one soon.

Also, I want to honestly say that I'm not very happy with the previous chapters. My skill level has evolved, so I think that, at some point, I will be making some minimal changes to the first four chapters until I'm happy with them. The storyline itself, obviously, will remain exactly the same, so there'll be no need to re-read anything. I just need to change some things, grammatically, rhetorically, etc. I honestly cringed a bit while rereading this.

* * *

There were swirls, a vortex, every shade of pink, blue, purple, red, green.

Traveling between worlds had never been a pleasant experience for Kurogane. The princess had always been mesmerized by the colors; the kid liked to watch her face light up. Fai - Fai had enjoyed the feeling. He'd often said that he'd like to fly, if only once; for real, without any help, just him soaring through the sky.

But Kurogane didn't care about the colors, felt no need to fly. He hated the dizzy, stumbling sensation that always came with inter-world travel. He was a ninja; he needed to be aware of his surroundings, alert at all times.

But he was never alert when landing in a new world, as if he were half-asleep.

When he arrived in Nihon, he was even more detached than usual. Perhaps it was because Yuuko's way of sending him had been a bit rougher than the pork bun's. Perhaps it was just the circumstances. Either way, everything was suddenly all too surreal.

Hands, touching his own. Tiny hands, smooth and caring. Tomoyo.

Voices. What happened? Is it all done? Is your journey over? Different voices; different faces, surrounding him, suffocating him. They didn't know, then. Amaterasu, Souma. Some names he couldn't remember; some he didn't care to. Faces as new to him as this vertigo.

It was all so overwhelming.

Kurogane shoved his way through the group that had gathered around him. He ignored the questions. He pushed away the hands.

"Later," he growled, clutching the three objects, Fai's objects, to his chest.

Here was Shirasaki Castle, nearly exactly how he'd left it. The sun was setting in shades of violet and rose; the cherry blossoms were still in full bloom.

Somehow, his feet found their own way to his chambers.

Slide door open, enter. Slide door closed.

But even alone he found no peace.

He sighed, in neither content nor distress, and looked around for a moment. The room was fairly bare, with a window opposite the door and some shelves opposite the bed. Those shelves were nearly empty; they held some of his mother's belongings, some of his father's; whatever had survived the attack, so long ago.

Kurogane took a deep breath. And another. Simple exercises, the kind he learned as a child, the kind that allowed him to focus his power, both mental and physical. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in.

The bed, piled high with crisp white blankets and pillows, suddenly looked so inviting.

Carefully, as if they might shatter into a millions pieces at the slightest tremor, he set Fai's belongings in the nearest corner. He'd take care of them later, perhaps arrange them on those shelves; but, then again, the thought of Fai's things sitting among those of his long-deceased parents made his ribs feel far too tight, as if his heart and lungs were being constricted.

He collapsed onto the bed - Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out... - and he slept.

Kurogane wasn't much of a dreamer. He hadn't been, not for a long time. When he slept, it was deep and dark. As a young boy, he'd often dreamt of sparring or swimming in the ocean. He'd always liked the ocean; he saw it little.

After that fateful day that took his parents from him, he dreamt no more and supposed he would never dream again. He told himself that it was because he had grown up; he now understood how foolish it was to dream, to hope, to wish. Why not take the initiative and make your own hopes and desires come true? It was just stupid, spending all your time dreaming of what you wish to happen rather than pursuing it and making_ sure_ it happens.

That night, Kurogane dreamt.


	7. Chapter Six

**Disclaimer:** TRC and the characters herein aren't mine. Which is probably for the best, because I would do wicked, wicked things to them.

**Author's Note:** This story has taken a very unexpected turn. But I'm gonna go with it, you know, see where it takes me.

* * *

"_Well, I have to admit, I am a bit surprised."_

_Kurogane blinked his eyes open but could hardly see a thing. _

"_What the_ hell_ -"_

"_Give it a minute. It was much darker where you were."_

_He did as he was advised, struggling into a sitting position with his eyes still squeezed shut against the light, noting as he did so the grass beneath his hands. It was soft, well-tended and, judging by the green sweetness on the air, recently cut. Kurogane breathed it in, taking great lungfuls at a time, and briefly he was a child again, laying back in the meadow near his home and imagining that he need only lift his lids to see a dragon floating lazily among the clouds. But he opened his eyes and saw only that curious light, dimmer now - and then other things, strange things, came into focus. _

"_What the hell?" he repeated, taking in the bizarrely familiar world. The grass beneath his fingertips had disappeared, along with its sweet smell, and in its place was cracked tile. Fucking _cold_ tile, darkly stained with blood in places, most heavily on the spot where he sat. High above his head, Kurogane could see a stately arched ceiling, probably coated in all sorts of precious metals; snow drifted in through a gaping hole._

_This is a dream._

_Turning towards his companion, he said, "This is -"_

"_Celes, yes." _

_Kurogane grimaced, seeing the figure. "I thought it might be you."_

_With a small chuckle, Fai, who sat cross-legged beside him, rested his face in his palms, beaming in that obnoxious manner of his, long limbs peeking out from underneath his cloak at awkward angles. "Why, Kuro-tan, who _else_ would it be?"_

_He couldn't help but laugh at that. "You're right," he said, falling onto his back and passing his hands over his face. "Who else?" The hole in the ceiling opened up onto the night sky, but there were no stars. Kurogane couldn't remember whether this had been true of the real Celes or if it was just a figment of his imagination, trying to strip the world of its aesthetic beauty in order to properly match it to the haunted, dead place he remembered. "You're dead and you're _still_ annoying the shit out of me."_

"_Come on, Kuro." Fai leaned back on his elbows next to Kurogane, sighing contentedly, completely at ease, before leering at him with a wicked, meaningful little smile. "You know that's not true."_

* * *

It was, admittedly, rather fucking unnerving to bolt into a sitting position, having been awakened by the sound of laughter, only to find himself completely and utterly alone. It took Kurogane only moments to realize that he had been the one laughing, low and mocking, but somehow the realization was not as comforting as it should have been.

"Losing my fucking mind," he muttered to himself, throwing a glowering look across the room to where he could clearly see the very top of Fai's staff, glinting vaguely in the moonlight.

"Stay out of my head."

* * *

"Kurogane," Tomoyo said warmly, though not without surprise, upon seeing him the next morning. She turned away from Amaterasu, with whom she had no doubt been discussing something of importance, to meet him halfway across the room and once again take his hands.

"Tomoyo-hime," he greeted with a nod. He felt a tendon in his neck twang in protest and wished not for the first time that he hadn't dreamt at all. Uninterrupted sleep, it seemed, suited him best.

Something flashed in her eyes, and she gave his hands a squeeze before releasing them entirely. "Take a walk with me, Kurogane."

* * *

Kurogane couldn't help but feel slightly at peace, with the cherry blossoms overhead and the castle so quiet and his princess's calm presence beside him. For a while, they simply strolled in silence, Kurogane's hand resting as always on the hilt of his sword, his eyes watchful, ever on-guard even in the confines of their home, where his services were largely unnecessary. Tomoyo, it seemed, was waiting, eyeing him softly whenever his back was turned, but otherwise keeping her gaze on her own hands, folded before her.

"You can't walk in dreams anymore," he finally said, reluctantly. It wasn't a question; more of a prelude.

"No," she affirmed, smiling, he thought, a little sadly. She paused for a moment to reach up and pluck a sakura blossom from a low-hanging branch, her eyes warm; this she twirled between her forefinger and thumb as they continued. "But I still know them better than most." She cast a sideways glance towards him. "Did you dream, Kurogane?"

"I did."

"About him?" That same knowing tone, those gentle eyes. Sometimes Kurogane wasn't sure whether he found her infuriating or calming. A bit of both, he supposed, with occasional pitches to one side or the other.

He sighed, and then, gruffly, "Yeah."

Tomoyo smiled suddenly, bright, all teeth, and for a moment Kurogane felt that none of it had ever happened, that he'd never left in the first place, and, most strongly, that they were no longer the broken remnants they had become - for Tomoyo was broken, too, she _had_ to be, as she'd lost a great power and gained an overwhelmingly cynical outlook on the world. But here, for just a moment, she was his toying, maddening, cheerful princess once again. And while that moment faded away, disappeared behind them, Kurogane found the fact that it had happened comforting.

"You know, Kurogane," she sighed a few minutes later, content, stretching her arms out in front of her, "I think it will all be alright."

Kurogane snorted. "Is that your professional opinion, Princess?"

Her smile was gentle, but with an underlying mischief. "Yes." She tucked the sakura blossom into the collar of his cloak before he could stop her, and then, with a giggle at the sight, repeated, "Yes, it is."

Kurogane followed her back towards the courtyard entrance, stubbornly attempting to dislodge the flower from his collar with naught but his breath, much to the Princess's - and a few onlooking guards' - amusement.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Well! That was certainly cheery, wasn't it? I feel all fuzzy inside having written that after all that _angst. _I can almost guarantee it won't last.


End file.
